Tuesday’s provincial election was a nail-biter and it will be interesting to see what this means for Christy Clark’s future.
She has resumed her duties as premier, but the reality is that under her leadership, the Liberals have gone from having an extremely comfortable majority in the Legislature to having a narrow hold on the reins of power, and that situation could evolve over the next few weeks as absentee ballots are tallied and a recount in Comox moves ahead.
Eric Foster, who was re-elected Vernon-Monashee MLA, remains loyal to Clark.
“I don’t see any groundswell against her. She is the leader of the party with the most seats in the House,” he said.
And likely such a response will come from most MLAs as they don’t want to create the appearance of a house divided.
However, there is every possibility that some Liberals, either at the rank-and-file level or in the backrooms, will wonder what has happened to their party — how is it that a majority can slip away?
Now obviously Clark is not entirely to blame for the situation and there will be a variety of factors that led to British Columbians voting the way they did. But at the end of the day, Clark is the party leader and the buck stops with her.
B.C. is heading into political territory it hasn’t experienced since the 1950s, and that’s unfortunate as there are so many critical issues to address, from housing and jobs to the overdose crisis.
And adding to that uncertainty is whether Clark will remain at the helm.
